Octopus Escape Room Challenge

The octopus: Nature’s craftiest escape artist. Is this just another preconception? Is it fact or
is it fiction?
We needed to design an experiment and test exactly how much skill a smart octopus would
display in order to escape from a confined environment.
So we sat down and devised the first ever escape room for an octopus. After all, escape
rooms are great fun! If they are stimulating and entertaining for us, wouldn’t they be
equally beneficial for an octopus?
As always, our main concern was to ensure that the experiment is 100% safe for the
octopus. Moreover, we would not allow the octopus to stay in the escape room for more than
a few minutes each round in order to eliminate the possibility of him getting stressed.
We chose Rudy for this experiment due to his playful character and average size. He is big
enough to be streetwise, and small enough to have plenty of space to move around in the
escape room.
We divided the escape room challenge in four rounds, according to their level of difficulty.
Round 1 was easy, Round 2 was moderate, Round 3 was difficult, and Round 4 was
extremely difficult.
We enjoyed planning the escape routes enormously and we would like to revisit this
experiment in the future so don’t forget to share your ideas with us in the comments.

[Asmobia]

"Rudy, why does it take so long"?
"I was struggling".
"Struggle for what"?
"I can't let human know it is too easy, it will hurt their feeling. They spent days building these rooms, I must let them enjoy it for couple minutes".

[DrJohnduff]

It's acting like in a video game : Ok, the exit is this way, but let's check every corner so i don't miss anything before...

[MrFotizzile]

as someone who took care of octopuses I know for a fact that guy is having the time of his life. my octopus would get excited whenever they saw me get there toys and challenges ready

[dr.grizzly]

“Not bad, hooman, you almost made me use 3% of my brain”

[ankitrawat]

I’m literally pushing the known limits of procrastination right now

[KatherineRoseArt]

At my old college campus in one of the science labs they had an octopus and lots of tanks of fish... a friend of mine who had marine biology classes told me that the octopus would escape the tank, go over to the fish tanks and open them up, eat some fish, and then go back to it's tank and close the lid. they thought students were stealing fish so they ran a security camera and caught it in the act. LMAO

[benmiller]

I'd like to see how Rudy does a week later with the same challenges to see how well he remembers. Love the channel by the way

[lindsayhuff]

It’s almost like he knows he’s being challenged and he enjoys it. This is so amazing.

[JimmyAkin]

I'm particularly impressed by how Rudy deals with the 4th challenge. The 1st time he hits the button, he's clearly encountering a new phenomenon (he'd had no experience with it before). The 2nd time, he's testing how it works (how long does the door stay open). The 3rd time, he *goes* for it! Even with higher-level deductive abilities, that's *really* few iterations to make a successful escape! Go Rudy!

[PaulGreeve]

How an octopus could trap humans?

Put them in a room with a door that has eight door knobs.

[andreamcdevitt]

I imagine it when put on the cage again like: ah shit, here we go again

[DannyMorrs]

I swear, every time I see an octopus do things like this, I become more and more convinced that theyre an alien species that became stuck here from a crash landing

[neilzion]

Day 7 of quarantine: okay let's watch octopus trying to escape

[taxsettlement]

Looking at Rudy's eyes, I can tell he is smarter than some of my co-workers

[EmeraldEyes]

I think anyone who tries to claim this is "abuse" just doesn't understand that this is enrichment for them. For dogs and cats, enrichment is laser pointer or toss a ball or mouse. For birds, perches and toys with things for them to climb, ring bells, work their beaks on, etc. For octopuses, you can't do any of that so give them puzzles to solve and exercise their brains.

[Silver]

Rudy was definitely a bit concerned about the light challenge. You can tell he backs away because he's unsure what the light is, but knows the button did something. So he tries the button again. Again, things change immediately, but this time he moves away slower, taking more time to observe, and the third time can tell that he's just opening a door and the light is a distraction. That's how it looked to me, at least.

[JennyTroutstanding]

What freaks me out is that in the last challenge, he didn't just hit the button by accident or anything. He hit the button, observed what happened a few times, then hit the button and strolled out. Meanwhile, the entire human race struggles with the concept of push/pull doors.

[IamJazarrion]

Rudy looks like me trying to find all the easter eggs before i beat a level on a video game.

[KatAdair]

My mom was a biology teacher, and we had an octopus for awhile in her high school classroom. Occasionally we'd come into the classroom in the morning only to find the octopus on the floor in the middle of the room. He was such a little escape artist. Fascinating, beautiful creatures. Thank you.

[gseric]

You can literally see how proud the fella was when he escaped the last one.